Day 18 & 19 – Sinking boats

Most boats are sinking. Les Troyens is sinking, fortunately very very slowly. There is water in the bilges, not much, but without occasionally bailing them out she would sink, might take 20 years but she she would sink.

The wettest part of the boat is the wine cellar, oh, think i forgot to mention Les Troyens has a wine cellar, see the piccie below.

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The dinghy is sinking as well, most of them are, in addition this dinghy has a slow air leak in the starboard tube. The combination of the two leaks and the weight of the outboard I reckon would sink the dinghy in less than a week without remedial action. The piccie below is one day of accumulated leak.

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We had another small problem with the dinghy yesterday, the usual outboard problem, it packed up. We popped over to the mini market, all was well, but when I tried to start it again no joy. The usual problem is you forget to pop the killcord back on (see piccie).

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You try to start it for 10 mins then realise the kill cord is detached (dettaching it ‘kills’ the engine, you pop it round your wrist or leg then if you fall off the engine is immediately stopped). Not the problem this time.

The second most likely problem is you’ve run out of petrol. So we rowed back to Les Troyens, and I filed the tank up. Still wouldn’t go, ran for 3 seconds then konked out. Wore myself out trying to start it, did the usual thing of taking the cover off and looking at it. Still wouldn’t work. So we end up rowing to Bill and Christine’s for dinner (although Bill did tow us half the way).

Left it for half an hour, tried again, still the same. Then all of a sudden, for no explainable reason it starts!

It’s no wonder we call it the b**tard dinghy and b**tard outboard.

We’ve decided to stay two nights in Vathi, can’t think of a better place before heading back to Paros tomorrow.

The view from my office today and a couple of Vathi. You can just see Les Troyens in the distance with the white flag.

Yamas!